![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Stuff moved!
Feb. 25th, 2010 12:43 amEntries pertaining to moving CJ into our house can now be found at http://amanda.lodden.com/tag/road-trip/
Feb. 25th, 2010
We're slightly east of Oklahoma City, in Shawnee. We made decent progress today, which pleases me greatly. A bit of discussion at lunch about how I get antsy when I'm the passenger because there's so very little for me to do (I can't read in the car without getting sick, and I don't know enough of his music to sing along, and we're in a very lightly populated area so there's not a lot to see out the window) led to an agreement that if I need to, we can switch to my music, but I feel guilty about it (I'm thinking I can mitigate that by letting CJ play his music when I'm driving, since I've got other things to pay attention to then). It also led to a trip to Best Buy in Amarillo (motto: "The only semblance of civilization for a hundred miles in any direction") to purchase a Nintendo DS.
Other than Amarillo, northern Texas is cow, more cows, cow, another cow, horse, cow, cow, cow. However, I was pleased to note that about half of those cows were free-range. After watching Food Inc and other where-your-food-comes-from documentaries, I had expected Cattle Country to be a sea of feedlots. And we did pass several, including one HUGE feedlot about 45 minutes west of Amarillo. But we also passed at least a hundred pastures that had small herds of cattle grazing on grass (or sagebrush, since some of those pastures were in New Mexico). I feel slightly better about my beef consumption now.
Checking into the hotel tonight was amusing. After a surprise convention in Lancaster, California the first night of our travel, we've developed a habit of having one of us (usually me, because I make CJ take the last shift of driving) go in and make sure that the hotel has rooms before we park the behemoth of a truck. I hopped out of the truck to ask about a room tonight, and when the clerk confirmed that they had some, I said "Thanks, let me just pop out and tell him it's okay to park. Oh! Do you have a AAA discount? [she nodded] Great, I'll grab his card while I'm out there." A quick jaunt out to the entrance to grab the card and tell him it was safe to find someplace, and I was back with my driver's license, my credit card, and a AAA card with a clearly-male name on it.
And then I asked if this hotel was part of a rewards program, because I couldn't remember which chain Hampton Inn is part of. But between myself and John, we have rewards memberships in nearly everything, and one of the ones we're missing is one that CJ has a membership in. As it happens, Hampton Inn is part of the Hilton chain, and that particular membership is in John's name.
Me: "Oh, that one is in my husband's name. Can you look it up?"
Clerk: "Sure. The same name as the AAA card?"
Me: "No, it's under John Lodden, L-O-D-D-E-N."
Clerk: "He's not your husband?"
Me: "Er, no."
The look she gave me clearly indicated that she Did Not Approve. I tried to explain that my husband does not take road trips well, and that had he come along I would have had to kill him before we got out of New Mexico, but I don't think that improved her opinion of me any.
Other than Amarillo, northern Texas is cow, more cows, cow, another cow, horse, cow, cow, cow. However, I was pleased to note that about half of those cows were free-range. After watching Food Inc and other where-your-food-comes-from documentaries, I had expected Cattle Country to be a sea of feedlots. And we did pass several, including one HUGE feedlot about 45 minutes west of Amarillo. But we also passed at least a hundred pastures that had small herds of cattle grazing on grass (or sagebrush, since some of those pastures were in New Mexico). I feel slightly better about my beef consumption now.
Checking into the hotel tonight was amusing. After a surprise convention in Lancaster, California the first night of our travel, we've developed a habit of having one of us (usually me, because I make CJ take the last shift of driving) go in and make sure that the hotel has rooms before we park the behemoth of a truck. I hopped out of the truck to ask about a room tonight, and when the clerk confirmed that they had some, I said "Thanks, let me just pop out and tell him it's okay to park. Oh! Do you have a AAA discount? [she nodded] Great, I'll grab his card while I'm out there." A quick jaunt out to the entrance to grab the card and tell him it was safe to find someplace, and I was back with my driver's license, my credit card, and a AAA card with a clearly-male name on it.
And then I asked if this hotel was part of a rewards program, because I couldn't remember which chain Hampton Inn is part of. But between myself and John, we have rewards memberships in nearly everything, and one of the ones we're missing is one that CJ has a membership in. As it happens, Hampton Inn is part of the Hilton chain, and that particular membership is in John's name.
Me: "Oh, that one is in my husband's name. Can you look it up?"
Clerk: "Sure. The same name as the AAA card?"
Me: "No, it's under John Lodden, L-O-D-D-E-N."
Clerk: "He's not your husband?"
Me: "Er, no."
The look she gave me clearly indicated that she Did Not Approve. I tried to explain that my husband does not take road trips well, and that had he come along I would have had to kill him before we got out of New Mexico, but I don't think that improved her opinion of me any.
City of Heroes geekery
Feb. 25th, 2010 01:02 amCatching up on things in the hotel room. One of the links from Facebook is to the announcement of the next City of Heroes expansion.
Show Last Objective: This UI improvement lets you find your last objective on a mission map, making it easier to find something you've missed.
*swoon* I am in love.
Now, I just have to wait for the expansion to be released.
*wait*
*wait*
*wait*
Is it released yet?
*wait*
How about now?
(Remember that old store commercial, with the woman who got there at 2 in the morning the day of the big sale, and was plastered against the store window chanting "open, open, open"? Picture me instead of her, a laptop instead of the window, and "update, update, update" as the chant.)
Show Last Objective: This UI improvement lets you find your last objective on a mission map, making it easier to find something you've missed.
*swoon* I am in love.
Now, I just have to wait for the expansion to be released.
*wait*
*wait*
*wait*
Is it released yet?
*wait*
How about now?
(Remember that old store commercial, with the woman who got there at 2 in the morning the day of the big sale, and was plastered against the store window chanting "open, open, open"? Picture me instead of her, a laptop instead of the window, and "update, update, update" as the chant.)
City of Heroes geekery
Feb. 25th, 2010 01:02 amCatching up on things in the hotel room. One of the links from Facebook is to the announcement of the next City of Heroes expansion.
Show Last Objective: This UI improvement lets you find your last objective on a mission map, making it easier to find something you've missed.
*swoon* I am in love.
Now, I just have to wait for the expansion to be released.
*wait*
*wait*
*wait*
Is it released yet?
*wait*
How about now?
(Remember that old store commercial, with the woman who got there at 2 in the morning the day of the big sale, and was plastered against the store window chanting "open, open, open"? Picture me instead of her, a laptop instead of the window, and "update, update, update" as the chant.)
Show Last Objective: This UI improvement lets you find your last objective on a mission map, making it easier to find something you've missed.
*swoon* I am in love.
Now, I just have to wait for the expansion to be released.
*wait*
*wait*
*wait*
Is it released yet?
*wait*
How about now?
(Remember that old store commercial, with the woman who got there at 2 in the morning the day of the big sale, and was plastered against the store window chanting "open, open, open"? Picture me instead of her, a laptop instead of the window, and "update, update, update" as the chant.)
If it's Thursday, we must be smuggling
Feb. 25th, 2010 11:16 pmTonight's stop is Rolla, Missouri. To the natives, those two words end with the same sound ("Ral-AH, Miz-ur-AH").
We took a slight detour to avoid a tangled mess of freeway interchanges (including a toll road) in Tulsa, which took us very slightly into Arkansas and through the Ozarks. I'd really like to do it again sometime, in a smaller vehicle and during the fall. Even with all the leaves off the trees, it was a beautiful sight, and I imagine that it must be absolutely stunning when the leaves have turned.
However, I would like to gift the state of Arkansas with some of our new-fangled technology. Here, gentlemen. It's called a "guard rail". Please install some.
For the first time in five days (of driving, plus one at Rose and Brian's), we got stopped by a police officer who wanted to ask questions about what was in the truck (in theory, he stopped us for speeding, but CJ said "Sorry, I was pacing myself off the car ahead of me and didn't notice" and the cop flat-out said "I'm not concerned about your speed"). Mind you, we went through a Border Patrol station in New Mexico, and even that officer wasn't concerned about what we had in the back of the truck. Even so, this cop didn't want to actually LOOK in the back. So, the secret to smuggling in drugs and/or illegal immigrants is to look the officer in the eye, say that you're moving, and have balls of steel so that you don't flinch when you offer him the key to the lock on the back of the truck.
We took a slight detour to avoid a tangled mess of freeway interchanges (including a toll road) in Tulsa, which took us very slightly into Arkansas and through the Ozarks. I'd really like to do it again sometime, in a smaller vehicle and during the fall. Even with all the leaves off the trees, it was a beautiful sight, and I imagine that it must be absolutely stunning when the leaves have turned.
However, I would like to gift the state of Arkansas with some of our new-fangled technology. Here, gentlemen. It's called a "guard rail". Please install some.
For the first time in five days (of driving, plus one at Rose and Brian's), we got stopped by a police officer who wanted to ask questions about what was in the truck (in theory, he stopped us for speeding, but CJ said "Sorry, I was pacing myself off the car ahead of me and didn't notice" and the cop flat-out said "I'm not concerned about your speed"). Mind you, we went through a Border Patrol station in New Mexico, and even that officer wasn't concerned about what we had in the back of the truck. Even so, this cop didn't want to actually LOOK in the back. So, the secret to smuggling in drugs and/or illegal immigrants is to look the officer in the eye, say that you're moving, and have balls of steel so that you don't flinch when you offer him the key to the lock on the back of the truck.